Attorney of Dismissed Diyarbakır Mayor: His Political Activities Depicted as Crime
Photo: Mezopotamya Agency
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Attorney of dismissed Diyarbakır Mayor Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, Zülal Erdoğan, has spoken to bianet about the bill of indictment written against her client.
Selçuk Mızraklı from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was dismissed as the Mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality on August 19 and was arrested on October 22 over "terrorism-related" charges.
The bill of indictment written by Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office charges him with "membership of a terrorist organization" and demands a prison sentence of from 7 years, 6 months to 15 years.
"Indictment does not have legal value"
Saying that the bill of indictment does not have "the qualities of a legal document," Attorney Erdoğan noted, "The ground on which the indictment is based and the facts it is based on do not have the minimum legal value and validity.
"The allegations contained in an indictment need to be verified by legally valid and consistent evidence. In the indictment submitted to the court, no evidence has been put forward to ensure a minimum suspicion. Unfortunately, the present time frame and the conjuncture normalized the indictments that are not based on evidence. "
"Political views are being substituted for evidence"
Erdoğan said that the events Mızraklı participated in being included in the indictment as "elements of the crime" is not lawful.
"Political views or considerations are being substituted for evidence. Therefore, the claims are neither based on the legal framework nor based on logical integrity and consistency. Selçuk Mızraklı is accused of his work which is inherent in the field of legitimate and democratic politics. The events he participated in are completely legal and legitimate. In fact, the indictment also emphasizes that these works do not carry illegal elements."
"The confessor's statements do not qualify as evidence"
Erdoğan said the following on the Sarmaşık Association, for which Mızraklı had been a chairperson for six years, being included in the indictment:
"Statements were taken from numerous NGO representatives and individuals on to the Sarmaşık Association. As far as I know, no one has been taken into custody due to the investigation related to the Sarmaşık Association. During the investigation of Selçuk Mızraklı's ongoing public case at the Diyarbakır 9th Heavy Penal Court, questions were asked about the Sarmaşık Association. The indictment, which was written as a result of that investigation, did not even include an allegation regarding the Sarmaşık Association. There is no explanation for the re-assertion of this issue in the present indictment.
On the statements of a confessor named H.B.A., Erdoğan said, "These statements represent a chain of nonsense that does not qualify as evidence and is completely devoid of internal consistency and logic."
What happened?Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı was taken into custody on October 21 as part of an investigation conducted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. He was arrested one day later on the charges of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and "membership of a terrorist organization," upon the statements of H.B.A. His lawyers objected to his arrest at the Diyarbakır 4th Penal Court of Peace. However, their objection was rejected by the court on October 31. In the indictment written by Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the events and demonstrations Mızraklı attended during the period when he was a parliamentarian and the mayor of Diyarbakır are considered as a crime. As evidence for his "membership of a terrorist organization", the indictment has also referred to his attendance and speech at Newroz on March 21, his attendance to a meeting on election results at a hotel in Diyarbakır and his attendance to a congress by the Democratic Society Congress (DTK). Mızraklı having acted as the chairperson and a board member of the Sarmaşık Association for Tackling Poverty and Sustainable Development is also considered as activities related to the terrorist organization. The association was shut down upon a Statutory Decree in 2016 during the state of emergency. It was alleged that among the families aided by the association were also those of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members. Referring to the Twitter account of Selçuk Mızraklı, the indictment has claimed that his social media messages "were mostly about organization members and even though they did not constitute the crime of terror propaganda, they were still in support of the organization." The indictment has also made references to the accounts of confessor H.B.A., based on which Mızraklı was arrested. The confessor previously said that "Mızraklı operated on a 'Hogır' code-named terrorist taken from the rural to a private hospital in Diyarbakır, he did not hand this terrorist to security forces, but discharged from hospital and let go." The Prosecutor's Office has indicated that the accounts of confessor H.B.A. "have to be taken into consideration." Accepting the indictment, the Diyarbakır 11th Heavy Penal Court ruled that the file of the ongoing lawsuit against Mızraklı at the Diyarbakır 9th Heavy Penal Court shall be combined with the file of this case. |
(RT/VK)